Tag Archives: Terms of Service

Big Brother isn’t just watching. A single mother in upstate New York was surprised to find that she had a Facebook page in her name, complete with photos of her, her son, and her niece. She hadn’t actually set up the page. It turned out that she was being investigated as a bit player in… Continue Reading

Operators of social media platforms and other websites must manage a large number of risks arising from their interactions with users. In an effort to maintain a degree of predictability and mitigate some of those risks, website operators routinely present users with terms of use or terms of service (“Website Terms”) that purport to govern… Continue Reading

First we had social media platforms, but recently a variety of “anti-social” media platforms have emerged—well, anti-social in a sense. For years, social media platforms have encouraged (or even, in some cases, required) us to use our real identities, with the aim of building friendships and networks in the online world. But these new social… Continue Reading

Contractual provisions giving a website operator the unilateral right to change its end user terms of service are ubiquitous and appear in the online terms of many major social media sites and other websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google. Although amendments to terms of service quite often cause consumers to complain, litigation regarding such… Continue Reading

Following our post on U.S. lawsuits concerning the ownership of LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, we report on a recent United Kingdom High Court ruling that considered who was entitled to operate four LinkedIn Groups, and other UK cases that have addressed related issues. Before we describe the High Court’s ruling, it is important to provide… Continue Reading

If you want to use those pictures you found on Twitter, beware. A federal judge in New York recently held that taking photos from Twitter to use for a commercial purpose infringes the photographer’s copyrights. On January 14, 2013, Judge Alison Nathan ruled that Agence France Presse (AFP), which provides subscribers with access to photos… Continue Reading

2012 was a momentous year for social media law. We’ve combed through the court decisions, the legislative initiatives, the regulatory actions and the corporate trends to identify what we believe to be the ten most significant social media law developments of the past year–here they are, in no particular order: Bland v. Roberts – A… Continue Reading

Website operators often take for granted the enforceability of their websites’ terms of service. In a recent order issued in a case from the Central District of California, Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble, Inc., Judge Josephine Tucker reminds us that such presumptions are not necessarily correct: terms of service that do not require an affirmative… Continue Reading

The growth of cloud computing has been phenomenal, as companies ranging from early stage start-ups to conservative, blue-chip corporations have sought to take advantage of the cost savings offered by cloud-based solutions. And at the head of this revolution has been Amazon Web Services (AWS), one of the earliest and most popular of the cloud… Continue Reading

As the Occupy Wall Street protests fade from memory, a related discovery battle between Twitter and the New York County District Attorney rages on. Earlier this year, we discussed the District Attorney’s efforts to subpoena user information and tweets of criminal defendant Malcolm Harris, an Occupy Wall Street protester charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly… Continue Reading

In two recent decisions issued within a day of each other, two influential federal courts limited the scope of three important federal laws used to prosecute criminal conduct involving computers. On April 10, 2012, the Ninth Circuit limited the scope of criminal liability for prosecutions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and on the… Continue Reading

In past Socially Aware posts, we have discussed using subpoenas in civil litigation to obtain evidence from social media sites, including whether individuals have a privacy interest in this information and how the Stored Communications Act may limit the use of subpoenas in civil cases. Until now, we have not discussed these issues in the… Continue Reading

In our September 2010 issue of Socially Aware, we provided a brief overview of Facebook’s “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities,” the social media service’s complex set of terms and conditions that companies frequently “click-accept” with little review (often, in a rush to establish their Facebook presences). Naturally, this situation is not limited to Facebook— for… Continue Reading

Companies that provide services to consumers have often sought to reduce the risk of class action lawsuits by requiring that their customers agree to arbitrate any disputes. Such arbitration agreements may require customers to arbitrate on an individual basis only, with customers being obligated to waive any rights they might otherwise have to pursue claims… Continue Reading

“Man, what do I write here? And what’s it going to be valued at?” So read Noah Kravitz’s Twitter profile soon after Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James of the Northern District of California denied Kravitz’s motion to dismiss a number of claims brought against him by his former employer related to the Twitter account. While Kravitz… Continue Reading

Groupon, Inc. (“Groupon”) has become a popular social media phenomenon and formidable online presence offering consumers goods and services at heavily discounted prices since its inception three years ago. Groupon offers daily deals for things to do, see, eat and buy in each of its many local markets – for example, $100 worth of spa… Continue Reading

Twitpic, a user-generated content service that simplifies the process of sharing photographs and other media through Twitter, came under fire earlier this year for changes to its Terms of Service that appeared to dramatically expand the rights granted to Twitpic by its users— and that were described by some media outlets as a “copyright grab.”… Continue Reading

In our February 2011 issue of Socially Aware, we reported that, at the end of 2010, Facebook had revamped its Promotions Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) to eliminate the requirement that approval be obtained from Facebook prior to offering sweepstakes, contests or similar promotions in connection with one’s Facebook page. More recently, Facebook substantially streamlined its Guidelines, which… Continue Reading

A pair of recent decisions in federal court in Arkansas confirms that nothing about the virtual world changes a core principle of contract formation—that there can be no valid contract without objective manifestation of assent. The decisions both deal with the efforts of one repeat pro se plaintiff, David Stebbins, to impose upon large institutions… Continue Reading

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Social media sites are transforming not only the daily lives of consumers, but also how companies interact with consumers. Here at Morrison & Foerster, across all of our practice groups, we are seeing complex, cutting-edge legal issues arising out of social media. As with the Internet boom during the mid-to-late 1990s, social media is generating new legal questions at a far faster pace than the law’s ability to provide answers to such questions. In an effort to stay on top of these emerging issues, and to keep our clients and friends informed of new developments, Morrison & Foerster publishes this blog devoted to the law and business of social media.

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